Kainé
- Comic= }} |status = , , , }} }} |sex = Female (As human) Hermaphrodite (As replicant) |age = 17 (NieR RepliCant) 20 (NieR Gestalt, The Lost World) |born = 3341 (NieR Gestalt) 3448 (NieR RepliCant) |died = 3369 (NG, Ending C) 3470 (NR, Ending C) |height = 172 cm |weapons = Kainé's Swords |haircolor = Silvery white |eyecolor = Dark purple |notablefamily = Kali (Grandmother) † |race = Replicant-Gestalt |voice(english) = Laura Bailey |voice(japanese) = Atsuko Tanaka }} Kainé is a companion and tritagonist of NieR, who ends up accompanying Nier after he helps her kill Hook. She is possessed by a Gestalt who dubs himself Tyrann, and as a result of her upbringing and Tyrann's occupation of her body, she has a disposition towards being cold and cruel - albeit the fact that more often than not she is shy and collected. Story - Act I= NieR - Act II= NieR Nier, Kainé and Weiss reach the Shadowlord's chamber and, after defeating Grimoire Noir, they discover that the Shadowlord is the original "Nier" as seen in the game's prologue, who was the primary test subject for the Gestalt Project, and driven by an identical desire to protect his sister/daughter. Having taken Yonah, he has given the original human Yonah her Replicant body, but this Yonah realizes that she cannot keep it, as she hears the Replicant Yonah calling for her brother/father. She vacates the body, and Nier and the Shadowlord do battle. During the fight, Weiss loses all his strength and disappears, leaving Nier to fight the Shadowlord alone. After defeating him, Nier and Yonah are reunited. However without their souls, the Replicants are doomed to extinction. - Endings= A= Ending A: Call Her Back Replicant Nier is about to kill Gestalt Nier, hesitating for a second before dealing a final blow. Afterwards, Nier goes to Yonah's side. Worried when Yonah is not responding to his calls. Soon, Grimore Weiss, after losing his body, uses the last of his strength to speak. He tells Nier that she will awaken when someone says the name of the one she loves the most. The player is then given a choice to write their character's name. If entered correctly, Yonah slowly opens her eyes and observes her brother/father after the five years. Kainé goes to leave but is stopped by Nier, asking if she wanted to stay with them. She declines, saying she has "her own shit to take care of." The scene shifts over to Nier and Yonah back at the village, sitting on the hill near their house. Yonah runs up to a sitting Nier and gives her brother/father a Lunar Tear as the both lay down on the hill. The scene shifts again, showing a adult Yonah and the Shadowlord about to take each other's hands, then the adult Yonah takes hold and hugs the Shadowlord's arm; hinting that Gestalt Nier and Yonah have reunited. |-|B= Ending B: Lingering Memories Ending B starts the same as Ending A. After Replicant Nier defeats Gestalt Nier, the scene then changes to Gestalt Nier scrunched up, weeping to himself - alone in a white void - as he regrets all the hardships he put Yonah through. A flashback occurs, with Yonah and himself alone in the grocery store. He tells her that he isn't hungry, while Yonah tries to force him to eat something. The scene reverts back and images of enemies that Replicant Nier killed gaze at him while he cries to himself. Gestalt Yonah, in her young form comes to greet him and thanks him for always being there with her, and shares the cookie with her brother/father. |-|C= Ending C: Thank You Ending C is a continuation of endings A and B. After Nier defeats and kills the Shadowlord, as Kainé goes to leave she begins to relapse. She then goes into her shade form, forcing Nier to fight her. After Kainé is incapacitated, Tyrann explains to Nier how he can save her. Either by killing her, or forgoing his entire existence for her. If the player chooses the first option, Nier stabs Kainé as he kisses her, finally ending her pain. Tyrann tells Nier Kainé's last words: "Thank you." A lunar tear falls next to a distraught Nier. He picks it up as he gazes through a window. He then goes home and lives with Yonah, with both living out their remaining days before they die from the Black Scrawl. |-|D= Ending D: Something Very Special If the player chooses to sacrifice his entire existence for Kainé, the player's data is erased and everyone forgets he ever existed. Nier disappears, while Yonah thanks Kainé for saving her. A lunar tear falls on the ground, which Kainé picks up. When she holds it, she has a flashback of Nier and mentions that it feels like she found something special. |-|E= The Lost World In "Ending E", told in Grimoire Nier, after the Shadowlord disappeared, a program to reset the entire Replicant system begins its execution in the Forest of Myth, and Kainé goes to destroy it. The forgotten Nier is reunited with Kainé, as a young boy/man, reconstructed with the “memories” that the tree had of his first visit to the Forest of Myth. }} }} Other Appearances ''SINoALICE'' Nier Replicant's SINoALICE collaboration has Kainé available as a potential character through the collaboration gacha. Her swords can be unlocked through a payment of 150 or 300 crystals. Her job story has her cursing the world, her existence, and her life of killing. She nearly gives into suicidal despair before remembering that she has people she still trusts. Their existence is enough to renew her resolve to keep fighting. During the collaboration event, she is given a passing mention when Emil remembers the truth. Unlike Nier, who turned into a Shade, Kainé is mentioned to have only "passed away." The ending afterword implies that her swords' emergence in the Library (SINoALICE's setting) contributed to the recreation of Emil's memories. Clicking on the "Follow" option for the Emil Copies NPC after the final battle in Normal difficulty has him mention the white flowers she liked. When player characters attack with Kainé's Swords in battle, they are given an animation that is so far unique to that weapon. Its weapon story is a retelling of Kainé's looks and troubled emotional state in third person. Though filled with anger, sorrow, and hate with each kill, she couldn't bring herself to part with the bloodshed. With no one to understand her, she felt broken by loneliness. The last part describes Ending C, stating her heart was at peace while dying in her loved one's arms. See also *Kainé (Gestalt) Gallery Artwork = - Drakengard = - Lord of Vermilion Re:2 = }} - Concept = }} |-|Renders = - Drakengard = }} |-|Screenshots = - Story = }} |-|Other = - Screenshots = }} }} Trivia *Kainé is the only character out of the group who doesn't directly kill any main antagonists or bosses, as Nier kills every boss except Popola and Grimoire Noir, Emil helps Nier kill Wendy, and Weiss kills Grimoire Noir. *Kainé is good at tongue twisters. A few times through and she starts adding curse words to them though. *''Grimoire Nier'' and subsequent interviews with Yoko reveals that Kainé's gestalt was not originally a hermaphrodite. She was a normal female with a fiancé, but her replicant was born as a hermaphrodite due to an error in the long-running replicant system. *According to [https://getnews.jp/archives/60012 this Get News interview] with Yoko, female members of the development team demanded a "male heroine." Yoko taking their request to the extremes led to the initial idea of Kainé's hermaphroditism. During the second part of the interview, it was the graphic stabbing scenes and blood that led to the game's Mature rating, not Kainé. Later, he shared that he thought her biology would be a huge reveal for players to discover and was surprised when it was included in the earliest advertisements for the game. *Yoko says the first request character designer D.K was given for Kainé's design was "something to cover her half-Shade body that is weak to sunlight" and feminine. D.K interpreted this to mean "covering one arm, one leg" and drew several women in lingerie. While surprised by the results, Yoko liked the striking image it created and pushed through other developers' hesitations to make it a target for finalization. **In the same interview, Yoko said the censored beeping noise for Kainé's Japanese profanity was an homage to the game's own dubbing history and a contrast to other media with serious narratives. It was considered "too comical" by localizers and abandoned in English. He is not knowledgeable about Japanese voice actors, but Yoko was unsatisfied with the "cutesy" voices that were being considered for her role. He personally pushed for Tanaka Atsuko because he wanted "a sharp and bold voice!" *Instead of Ending C and D being a decision for “Nier and Kainé”, it was more a choice for “the player and Kainé”. Director Yoko explained, "If you like Kainé after playing through the game twice, then sacrifice yourself and save her, if you don’t then you don’t have to save her." However, in an interview, novelist Jun Eishima expressed her opinion that Ending C would have been Father Nier's choice, while Ending D would be Brother Nier's choice, stating that, "A father is responsible to his own daughter, so he couldn’t just give up his existence. He feels that it’s his duty to protect Yonah and raise her, so he’d kill Kainé and live on. On the other hand, a brother and sister both coexist with and depend on each other, so maybe he’d choose to disappear and be relieved from his burden." *Though originally rumored to be a character exclusive to the Japan-only Nier Replicant, the third trailer for'' NIER'' showcased an audio-only monologue of Kainé berating Nier's book companion, Grimoire Weiss. *Kainé makes an appearance in the arcade-based fantasy collectible card game Lord of Vermilion Re:2. *Kaine is mentioned in NieR:Automata, along with Nier and Yonah, while Emil appears. *Saito conducted a NicoNico livesteam to promote Automata which included a character popularity poll for Replicant. Users voted her to first place. *According to this 4Gamer interview, Kainé's inclusion in the SINoALICE scenario was considered but prevented due to budgetary reasons. PokeLabo could only afford enough for two voice actors. References Category:Characters Category:Bosses Category:Replicants